Dish Won't Give Up TiVo Fight

Dish Network and TiVo have been battling in court since 2004 over Dish's alleged infringement of TiVo's recording-while-watching patent, but even though TiVo keeps winning, Dish won't give up. The latest development: a Federal Circuit court ruled against Dish's appeal to get another hearing at the Supreme Court, so Dish plans to appeal that ruling as well.

TiVo won an initial case in 2004 where Dish (then Echostar) was told to pay about $74 million to TiVo for infringing on TiVo's patent with its Dish Network DVR. Dish hasn't succeeded in changing that early decision, but wants to reinforce to its subscribers that their current DVRs are not illegal, and they can rest easy.

The company said in a statement: " The decision, however, will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar's engineers have developed and deployed 'next-generation' DVR software to our customers' DVRs. This improved software is fully operational, has been automatically downloaded to current customers, and does not infringe the Tivo patent at issue in the Federal Circuit's ruling."

That's nice, but at some point Dish will have to pay up to TiVO. Until then, watch for more appeals and rejections. -Rachel Rosmarin DISHNetwork